As my library continues to grow with all the great products, I was wondering how everyone keeps their libraries straight? Do you keep all of your content loaded or do you load and de-load as needed? Thanks for your information in advance.

Well, I've got my models organized on CDs according to what they are (and depending on how many i can cram onto a cd) all broken down into folders for characters and clothes, etc. I've tried to further divide them up by genre sci-fi, fantasy and modern. I try to only load models from the current genre i'm playing with be it sci-fi or fantasy. Doesn't always work to keep the runtime folder in order, however because MANY modelers out there have thrown in slight varraitions to their folders which causes a nightmare. In example .. lets use Utilize. They've got one called Utilize, another Utilize_Plus, and so on and so forth (even varriations on their Utilize P4 & P5 folder names). If I haven't used a model in 3 months .. it goes buh-bye. Thats where having the discs catagorized comes in handy because if I delete something i end up needing two weeks later, its easy to find.

I use multiple runtimes, loaded as needed. I've got one for each figure I use often (V3, M3, David, Miki, MilKids, Aiko, etc.). I also have a runtime just for hair (since hair can be used with any figure). I've got a "fantasy" runtime, for fantasy props, sets, etc. Also SF, Horror, contemporary. And a "nature" runtime (for plants, trees, rocks, and other outdoorsy stuff). I've got a "toon" runtime, for toonish items, and an "animals" runtime for realistic animals, a "special" runtime for things that are rarely used (such as holiday items). And a Sixus1 runtime, because his style is so distinctive it doesn't mix well with other stuff.

I stick them in the rear with my virtual pitch fork... I use multiple runtimes and name each Runtime_Content where Content is the catagory ie: Runtime_V3 (since I still use ProPack I put the exe and all other files poser needs to run into each and the rename the directory to Poser4 when I need that particular one.)

I mutter alot and say naughty words at the programmers.

Attached Link: Advanced Library

I use Dizzi's Advanced Library to load all my Poser content- this frees me from having to follow the P6 restriction. I group characters together ie. M3 has M3 - M3 Clothes with all their mats, poses, and props. This means if I am using a set of clothing all its mats and props are right there. The same is then applied to all my other major characters. AL is for Windows only at present.

Attached Link: http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&start=0

Multiple Runtimes. And then organizing the content of each Runtime folder into nested sub folders. As a result I know exactly which Runtime to look in, and where in that Runtime I'll find what I'm looking for.

Thanks so far for the suggestions, and Bobasaur, I've tried that method, it doesn't seem to help me much.

Attached Link: http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/poser/poserins.zip

This is a loaded question. What if someone is doing gay art? How would he "keep his content straight", and would he even need to do that? Oh wait. You mean organization. Nevermind. When Poser was originally written, the programmers obviously never thought much about a user having to manage a large, varied assortment of characters, each with his own, perhaps incompatible props (clothes), poses, faces, etc. If they did, they would have come up with a standardized way for content providers to ship content, and a standardized way for users to install, organize, and uninstall that content from within Poser itself. They didn't. I think that content should be organized mostly by character. This means either: 1). Creating multiple Runtimes, where each runtime contains all the stuff for a particular character. So, inside of your Poser install directory (ie, C:Program FilesCurious LabsPoser 6), you'd have to create a folder for each character, and then add that folder to Poser's library. And in order to get to a character's stuff, you'd have to navigate Poser's library up to the topmost level, where you'd have the "Poser 6" and "Downloads" folders, and then a folder for each character. 2). Create a sub-folder within each one of Poser's library tabs (ie, Figures, Poses, Faces, etc) for each character. In other words, for Mike3, you'd have a Mike3 sub-folder under Figures, and also a Mike3 sub-folder under Poses, etc. For Veronica3, you'd also have a Veronica3 sub-folder under Figures, a Veronica3 sub-folder under Poses, etc. Because this is such a hassle, and because content providers often ship stuff in a ZIP file that isn't organized this way (so you can't just unzip it to your poser install dir -- you have do some manual copying), and because content providers even sometimes zip up CR2, PZ2 and other files that reference other poser files in a dir that doesn't even exist on your system, I developed a utility to install poser content. It's free, and you can get it at the URL above. It strips out a ZIP's internal organization, and lets you instead decide where you want the content to go. Then it installs the content and modifies files so that they correctly reference where you've decided to install the files. (It even keeps a record of what is installed, so you can use the utility to easily uninstall content too). By default, the utility assumes #2 organization above. You tell the utility what name you want to use for your folder. For example, say you've got a ZIP file containing a character named "Joe". You run my utility and tell it you want to use a folder named Joe. The utility will create a Joe folder under "Figures" and put all Joe's figure content in that folder. It will create a Joe folder under Poses, and put all Joe's poses there. It will create a Joe folder under Faces and put all Joe's faces under there. Etc. Of course, if there aren't any faces for the character, no Joe folder will be created under Faces. And so on. But you can alternately use the utility to organize with method #1. Before you install Joe, manually create a Joe folder in your Poser install directory. Then use my utility's "Preferences -> Set Poser Runtime Folder" menu item to select that folder. Now the content will be installed there. You can then add this Joe folder to Poser's library (via the Library "+" button in Poser). As an added bonus, the utility can also install content in Poser 6's compressed format to save disk space, if you want that. Try it. Should be simple to use, and may be helpful.

My single Runtime is 40gb! Fortunately Poser 6 is all by it's lonesome in a 160gb hard drive. However I'm really glad I saw this thread as I've been pondering what to do to get the darned thing organized! Looks like I have some reading and reorganizing and reinstalling to do this weekend!!! G

I'm still on P4, so multiple runtimes are only a dream..;)
To be honest, the various items 'organize' themselves, and I have to click, and click, and click..etc) to find what I'm looking for in Poser. I did a database about 3 months ago, and just with what I have, I have about 5000 entries (sheesh), and about another 1 gig of stuff I'm actually considerign loading up. In fact, I need to do some pruning of things that don't work..;)

Interestingly enough, in Lightwave I can put any objet or texture file any where and it'll find them.

I don't understand why the geometry and the pose and the textures etc. have to be in seperate folders. It would be so nice if I could download pakled's "Devi-Aunt Aiko In Leather" package with the oversized paddle prop, leave everything in the original folder, and merely add it and it's contents into a simple spreadsheet library within poser.

MacConverter has a drag and drop interface that you can drag folders to. It'll list all the seperate elements that you dragged by type and let you manage the installation. It would be nice if Poser had that type of thing only it would leave everything where it was and merely add them to a database (including the path to the items).

The database could allow pictures - like png files - as well.

A number of programs have browse features - like Photoshop CS - that display the contents of folders - including preview pictures. Why not add something like that, so I can simply browse within Poser to my "Pakleds Perversions" folder and browse through everything.

Or my Aiko 3 folder if I choose to organize it by character instead of manufacturer.

Message edited on: 03/17/2006 17:32

one single runtime. varies from 7 to 11 gig. one backup, updated monthly (more or less). no direct installation of whatever. check all the files, geometries, textures, rename them reasonably and set your own paths. there is no merchants name in my runtime (well, apart from "runtime!DAZ", that is). write your own scripts for everything and make your own pngs. test everything right after pasting it into your runtime. too much effort? it is worth it! ive tried it with multiple runtimes......huh! now thats complicated! and too much wasted HD-space.

The key folder for me is the POSES folder. Character INJ, MATs and MORs wind up here. So my key folders here are CHARS, FACES, HAIR, and POSES. CHARS gets sub-folders CHAR-A3, CHAR-SP3, etc. FACES are for the generous solo FACE INJs. HAIR contains all the Hair Mats by name POSES for Pose sets only. As stated POSER sorts alphabetically and the flyout menu responds to keypresses so its easy for me to say, go to the flyout, select POSES, then tap "C" to drop me to the CHARS section, select the Character type (say A3) then in that menu scroll or if I know the character I want tap the letter of the name (say "N" for Nyoko). No mulitiple runtimes except my Poser 5 install on another Drive. It sounds messy, but works for me.

I have a folder?..;)

{quote]The key folder for me is the POSES folder. Character INJ, MATs and MORs wind up here. So my key folders here are CHARS, FACES, HAIR, and POSES. CHARS gets sub-folders CHAR-A3, CHAR-SP3, etc. FACES are for the generous solo FACE INJs. HAIR contains all the Hair Mats by name POSES for Pose sets only. As stated POSER sorts alphabetically I used to do that same thing until I switched to multiple runtimes. Each figure folder would have sub folders inside for "clothing" and "character addons". In addition to the figure folders, I had folders for other catagories like plants, vehicles, animals, environments, and each of those had sub folders inside further broken down. I found that it worked well enough too. But as my runtime grew in size it took poser longer to open up, so I switched to multiple runtimes and now poser opens up almost instantly depending on what runtime I have active at the time I exit it. If it's a small runtime Poser opens fast. But if it's my V3 clothing or character addon runtime, it takes it a bit longer.

What's a 17 Gig runtime between friends, eh? What I do need is more RAM. I had 1.5 Gb, now down to .5 on a new machine. And yes pakled, you have a folder. It makes things go. :)

Personally I use the 1 runtime but sorted into folders that are then divided into sub folders, I find navigation is easy and I can find what I want in the one place. Props folder for instance has sub folders for "weapons", "indoor props", "outdoors props", "buildings", "clothing" etc. All my folders are set up in this way, I tried the multiple runtime route and found it didn't work for me! Incidentally I have found no increase in the Poser start up time by organizing my runtime in this way as some would have you believe! [not a swipe at anyone here!] My runtime is 12 Gig at the moment and getting bigger and I'm using P6. Cheers!

I use a mix of PBooost and Multiple Runtimes. The Multiple Runtimes is to be taken with a grain of salt though. It basically means that everything I have that is Poser 6 specific (such as Miki, Koji, James, Jessi stuff) will end up in my Poser 6/downloads runtime, while everything else will end up in my old, trusted +50Gb PoserPRo Pack runtime, in the appropriate PBoost bank. As PBooost II now can load things directly, much like Dizzy's tool, I love it more than ever :o))

I'm honored..and I thought I was not smart..;) make it go..;)

BkMrrrrq

I've been using multiple runtimes for a while now, with separate libraries for each figure. The problem then is having to keep going back and forth between runtimes for general purpose materials, multi-use texture maps, and stuff like that. Then I found out that shortcuts work. Add a shortcut to /Runtime/libraries/Hair/NiftyHair/ to /Runtime A3/libraries/Hair/ and bingo, NiftyHair appears within the A3 library. Suppose you have /Runtime/libraries/Materials/Multi-use/.../... /Runtime/libraries/Materials/Multi-use/.../... /Runtime/libraries/Materials/Multi-use/.../... Then you can make a shortcut to the Multi-use directory in /Runtime A3/libraries/Materials and you'll never have to leave the runtime again.

i don't let anything install itself; i unpack into a temp directory, re-sort into a dummy filestructure, defrag the objs that need it with spanki's STOMP, make pngs, run crpro over the whole thing, and then move it into my -- as yet single -- runtime, and test it all. i also create a new zip file of the dummy structure for backup, and make an uninstaller. the resorting is a major deal, though i wrote a quick-n-dirty utility to do most of it for me once i realized this was going to be the way i wanted to do it, and that makes it faster now. i get rid of merchant names in folders (i have a flat text file associating products with creators so i can give credit). i separate characters from textures from clothes from hair from shoes from props from poses... i eliminate idiocies like folders starting with !!! to sort above other merchants' folders (shame on you!). i rename badly named components. i delete most makeup, lip, hair, recoloured-only textures since i can easily do my own colourization in the material room. i move templates into their own structure, away from poser. i hunt down templates if they don't come with the product. no, i am not actually obsessive-compulsive. :) poser is in fact the only program for which i go to such ridiculous lengths. it just pissed me of royally with its haphazard, unwieldy, buggy disorganization of content that was eating my diskspace as if it were bill gates. poser used to take forever and a day to start up, and it is not graceful when it can't find something. now it's almost zippy -- as zippy as poser can be. and i find things very quickly -- not just because my organization is good, but also because the sorting and renaming makes me more familiar with exactly what's in which product. oh, and i don't use poser's hideous library interface, i use p3do explorer with which i also make the pngs.

Single Runtime - my P5 Runtime - lots of sub folders, same as me old mate The Fixer.

The exception is anything P6 specific, which goes straight into the P6 Runtime.

I have both P5 and P6 installed but only use P5 for testing stuff.  I do, however, use the Runtime as my default, since I have a frightening amount of stuff installed there and sorted in a logical manner.

I too have one large 40GB runtime, but the folders at the top level of each library directory seperate all content by figure.  The next directory seperates files by MATs, MORs, MAT/MORs.  Then the next level of directory seperates files by which body part they effect.

=  )

I org by what figure it goes with, and what part of the body it applies to. If it doesn't go to a fig, I organize it by general type of what it is or what genre it might usually go with. So for example, in props I have a folder called 'guns', and another called 'environments'. Under environments I havfe folders for types of environments. In figures and props I might have something like:

The actual Aiko figure goes in characters... I then rename anything I download to begin with the name of the 'product' and throw it into the right directory. This process also helps to encourage me to mix, match, and customize.